Key member assembly of a musical instrument

ABSTRACT

Each of the black and white key members used has a skirt downwardly extending from the bottom thereof, and a stopper piece forwardly extending from the lower end of said skirt. Both stopper pieces of the black and white key members are arranged in parallel under the white key member, so that the upper limit of movement of the key members is defined by contacting the stopper piece with a common stopper rail. The lower portion of the skirt of the white key member is partly cut off in such a manner that the stopper piece of the black key member is free from being hindered by the skirt of the white key member during the vertical movement of the latter member.

United States Patent [72] lnventor Junji Ohno [56] References Citedllamamatsu-shi, J p UNITED STATES PATENTS [211 P 825,484 3,306,1522/1967 Klann 84/433X ggf 2 5x 23? 3,330,176 7/1967 Schwartz et al 84/433[73] Assignee Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha FOREIGN PATENTS hi,Japan 1,069,608 0/1967 Great Britain 84/434 a corporation of Japan [32]Priority May 24, 1968, Dec. 28, 1968 Japan (utility m0del)43/42,36l and(utility m0del)43/114,379

[54] KEY MEMBER ASSEMBLY OF A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT 4 Claims, 4 DrawingFigs.

[50] Field of Search 84/433- Primary ExaminerRichard B. WilkinsonAssistant ExaminerJohn F. Gonzales Att0rneyFlynn & Frishauf ABSTRACT:Each of the black and white key members used has a skirt downwardlyextending from the bottom thereof, and a stopper piece forwardlyextending from the lower end of said skirt. Both stopper pieces of theblack and white key members are arranged in parallel under the white keymember, so that the upper limit of movement of the key members isdefined by contacting the stopper piece with a common stopper rail. Thelower portion of the skirt of the white key member is partly cut off insuch a manner that the stopper piece of the black key member is freefrom being hindered by the skirt of the white key member during thevertical movement of the latter member.

PATENTED rm len 3.561315 FIG.2

I Tuna 0/14/0 INVENTOR.

mfg nw KEY MEMBER ASSEMBLY OF A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION This invention relates to a key board assembly of an electricor electronic musical instrument and more particularly to an assemblyinvolving mechanisms for uniformly arranging key members at a prescribedlevel.

In order to uniformly arrange black and white key members at aprescribed level, it has been desired that the key members be providedwith stopper pieces cooperating with a common stopper rail in definingthe upper limit of movement of said key members.

Since an electronic or electrical musical instrument requires aplurality of keying switch elements respectively corresponding to thekey members to be arranged under the middle portions of said keymembers, the stopper rails should be positioned at the forward sides ofthe skirts of the white key members, said skirts being intended toconceal the interior mechanism from view thereby to improve the visualappeal. In this case, however, the stopper piece of the black keymembets are unavoidably hindered from extending to the stopper rail bythe skirt of the white key member.

I-Ieretofore, the upper limit of movement of the black key members wasdefined by a stopper rail and stopper pieces associated with said blackkey members, and the upper limit of movement of the white key members bya stopper rail and stopper pieces associated with said white keymembers. Further, the stopper rails had to be exactly arranged inparallel to each other, and the stopper pieces had to be fixed to thekey members respectively so that the upper surfaces of the black andwhite key members may be arranged in respective common horizontalplanes. Consequently, it was required that the level of the stopperpieces can be adjusted in respect of the attaching portions of the keymembers by of screws when said stopper pieces are assembled in the keymembers. Such an adjusting operation was very complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to provide a keymember assembly so designed that the black and white key membersrespectively involve stopper pieces cooperating with a common stopperrail positioned at the forward sides of the skirts of the white keymembers.

Namely, the key member assembly of the present invention wherein thereare provided a plurality of black and white key members arranged in aprescribed order, is characterized in that each of said black keymembers is provided with a skirt downwardly extending from the forwardend thereof and a stopper piece forwardly extending from the lower endof said skirt; each of said white key members is provided with a skirtdownwardly extending with the same width as the key member, from thebottom thereof and positioned in front of the skirt of said black keymember, a stopper piece forwardly extending from the lower end of saidskirt of the white key member in a manner to allow a space for thestopper piece of the adjacent black key member be positioned at the sideof the stopper piece of the white key member, and a cut oft portionformed at the lower portion of the skirt of the white key member in sucha manner that the black key member is free from being hindered by theskirt of the white key member during the vertical movement of the lattermember; and a common stopper rail for all the black and white keymembers is positioned at the forward side of said key members to definethe upper limit of movement of each of said key members by contactingthe stopper piece of said key member.

In practice, such specified mechanisms are effectively utilized in theupper one of the two-tiered key board arrangements of an electronic orelectric musical instrument, because the forward ends of the white keymembers extend outwardly 'of the key slip board,

BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is a cross-sectional side viewof a black and white key member assembly embodying this invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the key member assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a black and white key member assemblymodified from that of FIGS. 1 and 2; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side view of the key member assembly of FIG.3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1 and 2 indicate a blackand white key member assembly involving a plurality of so-called blackand white key members made of synthetic resins such asacrylo-nitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymers, said white key membersbeing used for generating natural tones and said black key members beingemployed for generating sharps and flats. Each of the white key membersI is provided with a skirt 2 formed integrally with the key member anddownwardly extending from that point of the bottom thereof correspondingto about onethird of its length as measured from its forward end, viz infront of the forward end of each of the black key members 3. A stopperpiece 4, preferably of a flat plate type, is integrally formed with saidskirt 2 in a manner to extend forwardly from the lower end of said skirt2. Each of said black key members 3 is provided with a skirt 5downwardly extending from the forward end thereof, and a stopper piece6, preferably of a flat plate type, integrally formed with said skirt 5in a manner to extend forwardly from the lower end of a said skirt 5.Said stopper piece 4 has a sufficiently narrow size to allow a space forthe stopper piece 6 of the adjacent black key member to be positioned atthe side of the stopper piece 4. Furthermore, said white key member 1 isprovided with a cut off portion 7 fonned at the lower portion of theskirt 2 thereof in such a manner that the black key member 3 is freefrom being hindered by the skirt 2 of the white key member during thevertical movement of the white key member. The black and white keymember assembly further involves a common stopper rail 8 for all theblack and white key members which is positioned at the forward side ofsaid key members and extends horizontally to define the upper limit ofvertical movement of each of said key members by contacting the stopperpieces 4 and 6 of said key members. Said stopper rail 8 is used as a keyslip board.

The said stopper rail 8 has an upper flange 8a integrally formed withthe upper side thereof and protruding rearwardly so as to face thestopper pieces 4 and 6 in a vertical direction. A key bed 9 ishorizontally laid at the underside of the arrangement of the key members1 and 3, and has its front side attached to the back of said stopperrail 8 and its rear side attached to a back rail 10 extending parallelto said stopper rail 8. The upper side edge 10a of said back rail 10fits in with a transverse groove 1 l of each of the key members. Betweenthe rear end of each of said key members and the lower side edge 10b ofsaid back rail 10 extending rearwardly is interposed a tension coilspring member 12 in a manner to bridge them, thereby to urge the keymembers upwardly at the forward side. To the middle portion of thebottom of each of said key members is attached an operating bar 13downwardly extending from said middle portion. A switch 14 having anactuating member to be switched by said operating bar 13 is located onthe underside of said key bed 9. On the under surface of said flange 8ais attached a cushion member made of a material free from impact noisessuch as felt, rubber or foamed synthetic resin indicated by thereference numeral 15 in FIG. 1. A cushion member 16 of the same materialas said cushion member 15 is disposed on the key bed 9 in a manner toface the undersides of the skirts 2 and 5 at a prescribed space.

In operation, when the desired one of the white key members l is pusheddown, the skirt 2 thereof is downwardly moved to the cushion member 16.In this case, the stopper piece 6 of the adjacent black key member3is'prevented from being pushed down by the skirt 2. because it extendsthrough the underside of the skirt defined by the cut off portion 7.When the force of the fingers is removed from the white key member 3,said key member 3 returns to the original position by the urging forceof the tension spring member 12 with the stopper piece 6 contacting thecushion member 15. Of course, the movement of the black key member isnot prevented by the white key member disposed in a prescribed place.

A modification of the black and white key member assembly is shown inFIGS. 3 and 4. A slightly cutoff portion 107 of each of the white keymembers 101 is partly formed with the lower portion of a skirt 102thereof. A skirt 105 of each of the black key members 103 downwardlyextends to a lower level than that at which a stopper piece 106 ispositioned, and the rear portion of a stopper piece 106 downwardlyprojects and contacts the lower end of said skirt 105 so as to form aconcave portion l20 between the skirt 105 and stopper piece 106,saidconcave portion 120 facing in a vertical direction the lower edge ofthe cut off skirt. Accordingly, the black key members and the interiormechanism are completely concealed from the front view by said skirt102, The separate parts of said black and white key member assembly areof the same form as in the first embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2. Therefore,the separate parts are shown merely by reference numerals in FIGS. 3 and4, each having the same digits of the first and second places as thoseof the first embodiment, and eliminated from the description foravoiding a complicated explanation. O

In the embodiments described above, the skirt and stopper piece areintegrally formed with each key member, and the stopper rail is commonlyused to all the black and white key members, so that the upper surfacesof the black and white key members can be exactly arranged in respectivecommon horizontal planes without adjusting the positions of the stopperpieces to the key members.

I claim:

1. In a keyboard assembly having a plurality of natural and sharp andflat key members arranged in a prescribed order and a common stopperrail, the improvement comprising: a

plurality of natural key members each having a forward end of apredetermined width, a skirt formed integrally on the underside of eachnatural key member and extending downwardly therefrom, said skirt havingan upper skirt portion having substantially the same width as that ofthe forward end of each natural key member and a lower skirt portionextending downwardly from said upper skirt portion and having a narrowerwidth than that of said upper skirt portion, both of said upper andlower skirt portions defining a cut out portion providing a spacetherebetween, and a stopper piece extending forwardly from the lower endof said lower skirt portion; a plurality of sharp and flat key memberseach having a forward end of a predetermined width, a skirt formedintegrally on the underside of each sharp and flat key member andextending downwardly therefrom, and a stopper piece extending forwardlyfrom the lower end of said skirt of each sharp and flat key member, thestopper piece of each sharp and flat key member being positioned in thespace provided by said cut out portions so as to be movable verticallyin said space without being obstructed by the skirt of the natural keymember; and

said common stopper rail being positioned at the forward side of saidkey members to define the upper limit of movement of each of said keymembers by contacting the stopper piece of each of said key members.

2. In the keyboard assembly of claim 1, the further improvement in whicha concave portion is formed between the skirt and stopper piece of eachsharp and flat key member, said concave portion facing the lower edge ofthe skirt of the natural key member in a vertical direction, said skirtof said natural key member completely .concealing the interior of saidkeyboard assembly from view.

3. In the keyboard assembly of claim 1, the further improvement whereintwo adjacent natural key members have adjacent cut out rtions forming agiven 5 ace therebetween.

4. In the key ard assembly of claim the further improvement wherein thestopper piece of a sharp and flat key is positioned in the given spacedefined by the cut out portions of said two adjacent natural keymembers.

1. In a keyboard assembly having a plurality of natural and sharp andflat key members arranged in a prescribed order and a common stopperrail, the improvement comprising: a plurality of natural key memberseach having a forward end of a predetermined width, a skirt formedintegrally on the underside of each natural key member and extendingdownwardly therefrom, said skirt having an upper skirt portion havingsubstantially the same width as that of the forward end of each naturalkey member and a lower skirt portion extending downwardly from saidupper skirt portion and having a narrower width than that of said upperskirt portion, both of said upper and lower skirt portions defining acut out portion providing a space therebetween, and a stopper pieceextending forwardly from the lower end of said lower skirt portion; aplurality of sharp and flat key members eacH having a forward end of apredetermined width, a skirt formed integrally on the underside of eachsharp and flat key member and extending downwardly therefrom, and astopper piece extending forwardly from the lower end of said skirt ofeach sharp and flat key member, the stopper piece of each sharp and flatkey member being positioned in the space provided by said cut outportions so as to be movable vertically in said space without beingobstructed by the skirt of the natural key member; and said commonstopper rail being positioned at the forward side of said key members todefine the upper limit of movement of each of said key members bycontacting the stopper piece of each of said key members.
 2. In thekeyboard assembly of claim 1, the further improvement in which a concaveportion is formed between the skirt and stopper piece of each sharp andflat key member, said concave portion facing the lower edge of the skirtof the natural key member in a vertical direction, said skirt of saidnatural key member completely concealing the interior of said keyboardassembly from view.
 3. In the keyboard assembly of claim 1, the furtherimprovement wherein two adjacent natural key members have adjacent cutout portions forming a given space therebetween.
 4. In the keyboardassembly of claim 3, the further improvement wherein the stopper pieceof a sharp and flat key is positioned in the given space defined by thecut out portions of said two adjacent natural key members.